Machine and method of winding and coiling textile strand material



Sept. 19, 1961 J. A. BRADSHAW 3,000, 7

MACHINE AND METHOD OF WINDING AND COILING TEXTILE STRAND MATERIAL Filed 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ooooooooooooo o 3/ 47/ 4Q /5 4 INVENTOR JOHN A. BRADSHAW ATTORNEYS Sept. 19, 1961 J. A. BRADSHAW 3,000,075

MACHINE AND METHOD OF WINDING AND COILING TEXTILE STRAND MATERIAL Filed 0st. 30, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR JOHN A. BRADSHAW ATTORNEYS United States Patent Q 3,000,075 MACHINE AND METHOD OF WINDING AND COILING TEXTILE STRAND MATERIAL John A. Bradshaw, 55 Stever Ave., Hillsdale, NJ. Filed Oct. 30, 1959, Ser. No. 849,854 4 Claims. (Cl. 28-21) the wound. stockand to simplify its'removal' or dofiing from the spindle. When no sleeves or spools are employed, a coreless package will result. A relatively slow moving traverse is employed for winding successive turns of twine side by side or adjacent'to each other as in sewing spool winding. A relatively fast moving traverse produces a crosswound package where each turn crosses over others and yields better self support to the wound mass such that spool heads are not always required to.

help support the wound package of twines or strands.

Constant winding spindle speeds produce very substantial increases in twine winding speed since the wound mass builds up and increasesthe. elfective winding diameter.

Subsequent use of the wound twine or strand particularly in high speed delivery or in low and even tension applications usually requires that the twine be led off axially or over the end of the package. A net change of one turnv of twist resultsin the delivered strand for each coil of strand delivered off the end of a wound package. Should the twine be. pulled ofl tangentially to the side, such pulling direction requires. that the package be unrolledwhich often results in a higher tension drag together with difiiculties in snagging and tangling especially when the twine delivery requirement is intermittent. However, an unrolling delivery does not change the twist in the delivered twine.

Textile carding machines and drawing frames employ coiling machines to take up the sliver produced in these operations and pack it uniformly into sliver cans. Each coiler uses a combination of a coiling head, one or more pairs of calender rolls, and a can turning table to produce quite satisfactory cans of coiled sliver. Disadvantages in this general type of winding lie in the rather uncontrolled and poorly packed coiled mass in the bottom two thirds of the can, and also in the necessity for doffing and replacing the filled can at regular intervals to avoid overfilling and any related damage to the coiling device.

A principal object of this invention is the provision of a device which has the ability to Wind a nonrotating and virtually stationary mass of stock. The orderly deposit of stock in a uniform distribution and pattern on one end of a non rotating package leaves the other end free and exposed to be led off at will to a subsequent operation or location with no necessity for stopping the supply winding.

A second principal object of the invention is the production of the wound package to deliver strand or twine with no change in twist.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a Winding device to wind up stock with a constant linear twine or strand take up speed.

Another advantage lies in the ability of this winding device to wind any practicable size or weight of take up package and also in the ability of the wound package to be split into any smaller size.

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With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as will be. more fully described andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional view somewhat schematic illustrating the device of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is an elevation and an end view of the package produced by'the device;

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the guide with one coil therein.

In proceeding. with. this. invention, I provide for the delivery of strand material in coil form, and I so change the path of the laid coil that it overlaps the preceding coil'in'. such a way that the strands as laid will tend to; bind the previous strands so as to produce a package of a formation which will maintain itself in a unit form.

with a hollow center formed in the package with nov core.

In FIGURES l and 2 Ihave shown a device for form.- ing a package of generally cylindrical form with a round nose of convex shape and somewhat along the surface of a sphere, which I find. is better from the standpoint of sustaining itself in a unit form inasmuch as the coils overlap each other in such a way as to bindthe package. into this unit form, and yet the yarn may be drawn from the package at will. In FIGURE 1, 10 designates a framework having supporting legs 11 and 12. The

frame Work is. in generally cylindrical form or may be.

spider-like as it acts primarily as. a support for other parts. One end of the frame is. necessarily open while the other end is generally closed as at 13, and in this closure portion 13' and centrally or on the axis of the. cylindrical casing 10, there is provided a bearing 14 which, supports through ball bearings 15 a tubular shaft 16. having a central bore. 17 therethrough, through which the strand to be. wound. passes. A gear 19 is keyed to this shaft. 16. for rotating the, same. Fixed to the inner end. of the shaft 16,' there. are two arms 20 and 21. The former of these supports a thrust plate 22 fixed to the arm 20 and which is shaped on the segment of a. sphere. The arm 21 supports a segment 23 of this thrust plate. which conforms to the sphere segment and is complementalthereto but which itself is supported by a shaft 24 centrally thereof; the plate being circular about the. axis, of its shaft. This. shaft. is supported in ball bearings 25 and 26, supported at. theend of the arm 21, and the shaft.

is. driven by gear. 27 meshing with a sun gear 28 Ex; tending through this shaft 24, there is a guide tube 29 which receives the yarn. to be wound. axially of the shaft" 24 and then guides it radially outwardly of shaft 24 in somewhat of an S bend to a delivery point 30 which is; adjacent the. outer periphery of the rotating plate 23, this plate being guided in bearings, 31 at, its periphery in the. plate 22.

The drive. for theshaft 16 and its arms 20 and 21 and the mechanism mounted thereon is from a motor pulley 35 which drives the drive shaft 36 mounted in ball bearings 37 and 38- in the frame 10. A gear 39 is fixed on this shaft 36 and drives the gear 40 on the inter mediate. gear shaft 41. Also on this intermediate, gear shaft, therev is. a gear 42-which meshes with the gear 19 on the shaft 16. These gears 40 and 42 are fixed to rotate together such as by being secured to each otherin driving relation or through the gear shaft 41 both being keyed. thereto.

A further driving relation occurs by reason of the. gear 43 keyed to the drive shaft 36 which drives gear 44 loose on the. intermediate gear shaft 41 which in; turn is fixed to the gear 45also. loose. on the intermediate, gear shaft 41 so as to drive the gear 46 which is fixed; on the,- hub 47 of the sun gear 28. This sun gear is thus capable.-

of rotation itself so that through the change gears 43, 44, 45 or the change gears 39, 40, 42 a selective relative speed of rotation of the shaft '16 and the shaft 24 may be had. A The sun gear is suitably supported by hearing 48 in the framework while bearing 49 also support the thrust plate 22 at its outer periphery in this framework. Adjacent the open end. of the supporting framework 10, I have provided a guide 50 in the form of a tubular sheath having an inner supporting surface 51 spaced from its central axis. This guide 50 is mounted upon suitable supporting legs 52 spaced along its length at sufl'icient intervals to provide the proper support. 1

In operation the drive is such as to rotate the shaft 16 carrying the arms 29 and 21 relatively slowly while the rotation of the shaft 24 carrying the guide 29 and plate 23rotate much faster, the ratio being about forty to one. It will be observed that the rotation of the shaft 24 is obtained by the meshing of the gears 27 and 28, the gear 27 being rotated with the sun gear stationary or with the sun gear rotating much slower by reason of the movement of the arms 20 and 21 revolving about the axis of the shaft 16. A strand of textile material is drawn in through the hollow shaft 16 as shown by the arrow 55 and then passes over pulleys 56 and 57 on arm 21 and thence axially into the shaft 24 and thence through the guide tube 29 to the outer periphery of the plate 23. Here the strand material designated 58 is deposited in a coil whose plane is shown by the double lines to which the lead line of 58 extends. The coils are built up as shown by their diametrical sections 59, 59', 60, 60, and so forth, while at the same time each deposited coil advances circularly a small amount about the axis of the shaft 16. Thus, if the ratio is forty to one, there will be 40 coils deposited in one complete revolution of the arms 20 and 21, thus forming a package which has a hollow. center 61. The yarn as deposited on yarn previously laid, presses into this yarn previously laid and gets a strong frictional grip thereon so that as the arms 20 and 21 are revolved about an axis 16 this incoming yarn is actually pulled out of the tube 29 by reason of the rotation of the arms 20 and 21. Also as this package builds up and acquires weight, the deposited yarn causes the package to be moved forward into areuate plate 22 which acts as a thrust plate against which the deposited yarn may push to force the package which has been previously formed ahead of it to move further ahead and through the guide 50 and along the supporting surface 51 on the inner side of this tube.

As will be apparent the yarn package is stationary not being revolved about any axis, and thus the yarn as it is deposited will have no permanent twist laid in, such twist as occurs is of the false twist type. This arrangement of building the package by additions of yarn to one end of the package leaves the opposite end of the package free to have yarn drawn therefrom without stopping the winding operation. Also from such a continuously formed package units may be severed in a pre-determined size without stopping the winding operation. Thus many disadvantages of previous windings will be eliminated, and a package is formed which is unique in its ability. to deliver the yarn without twist as drawn therefrom.

In some cases instead of having the sheath or guide as a complete tube, a trough-like guide may be employed leaving access to the top of the package where it is horizontal. Also the package may not be formed along a horizontal axis but could be caused to be moved upwardly vertically by the yarn being deposited over a vertically disposed guide. In this latter case, however, it will be apparent that a greaterrfriction is provided by reason of the weight of the package on the freshlydeposited yarn.

For initially starting the winding operation his only necessary to gather up a mass in random form of the strand material to be wound and press this layer of material against the face of the winding machine generating disk from which the strand end has previously been led out of the guide opening. This free end would be trapped by pressure or friction against the resilient column of material so positioned, and then winding could be started. At a convenient time, the balled up mass of material would be removed from the face of the package so that only properly wound material would remain.

Further, should the winding strand become parted during winding, it would then be necessary to stop the machine, press the wound mass'away from the face of the winding disk, lead the broken end along the guide path and out of the guide mouth probably with a leadthrough wire. The broken end is then tied to the last wound and at the rear of the wound package, the wound package mass-is pressed back in place against the face of the winding head, and then the winding machine may be started up again to resume winding. V 7

It is further suggested that. at the conclusion of a Winding assignment it should prove desirable to. not strip the Wound package back to the face of the winding head but to always leave a small practicable portion in position against the winding disk so that its very presence develops sufl'lcient back pressure to allow a prompt start up on the next winding assignment. I claim: 7 l. The method of handling strand-like material which comprises providing a fixed guide open at its opposite axial ends having a lengthwise axis extending generally horizontally and a supporting surface spaced from said axis, directly placing strand material in its final relative position in non-rotating coils with each coil of a di- 511116161 greater than the distance from the axis to the supporting surface with the plane of each coil at an acute angle to the axis of said guide and with successive coils displaced circularly in echelon relation with respect to the previous coil to provide the shape of a portion of a generally sphere to the end of a mass thus formed whereby they provide an overlapping binding relation, the progressive depositing of the strand material causing endwise pressure on the mass of deposited strand-like material causing it to be pushed along the supporting surface, and withdrawingthe deposited material at the opposite end of said guide.

2. An apparatus for handling strand-like material comprising a fixed guide having a lengthwise axis extending generally horizontally and open at its opposite axial ends and providing a supporting surface spaced from said axis, a thrust plate shaped to generally conform to the concave surface of a portion of a sphere and located with its concavity adjacent one end of said guide, means to rotate said plate about the axis of said guide, said plate having an independent segment as a portion of said plate including said mis, means to rotate said segment relative to said plate about an axis at one side of the axis about which said plate rotates, and a strand guide carried by said segment at a location to cross the axis of said guide every revolution of the segment and means to direct said material along the axis of rotation of said plate and thence to the strand guide on said segment.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2 wherein the guide is tubular.

4. An apparatus as in claim 2 wherein the segment is driven through rotation of said plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS a 

